I-95 back open in Volusia after massive fatal crash

PORT ORANGE — Northbound Interstate 95 in Volusia County is back open after emergency repairs to a section of the highway where one person was killed and five others were injured in a fiery crash early Thursday involving three tractor-trailers.

The crash triggered explosions, shaking awake hundreds of residents and sending a plume of toxic chemicals into the air.

"It was pretty nerve-racking," said Kimberly Palmieri, whose home in the Willow Run subdivision is less than a half-mile from the crash scene.

She compared the noise to the sonic booms of a returning Space Shuttle, "only there were five of them."

She said the blasts were so loud, "We thought it was like right here, right in our front yard."

Neighbor Michael Leal said he ran outside after the first explosion.

At first he saw just smoke coming from crash, but by the time he ran to the end of the street, flames were leaping 30 to 40 feet into the air.

Initially, authorities closed the highway in both directions, but several hours after the 3:26 a.m. crash the southbound lanes were reopened.

The crash, north of Dunlawton Avenue, involved a U.S. Postal Service truck, a logging truck, a double-semi hauling a dangerous chemical, as well as a car carrying three people, crashed about 3:26 a.m. north of Dunlawton Avenue in Port Orange.

The double-semi was hauling methyl bromide, an odorless, colorless gas used to fumigate soil. The driver of that vehicle, 66-year-old Francis Trammel of Neptune Beach, was killed, the Florida Highway Patrol said.